by Brigid Kemmerer
We’ve got book 2 of the Cursebreakers series and I’m ready to go after that ending. If you have NOT read A Curse So Dark and Lonely… ya’ need to go because you’re gonna ruin things for yourself.
Go on now. Git… to your preferred book seller or library for book 1.
The curse has been broken. The kingdom is saved? Not really. Grey went into hiding after he learned the truth of his heritage. And Rhen is paying for the 5 years he left his kingdom to fend for themselves. The neighboring kingdom is hoping to strike before they can regroup. Their only hope is a rumored heir and a queen’s daughter set on peace. Will they save the kingdom… this time? (Probably not it IS a trilogy…buuut…) Let’s find out!
Read if you like: fairytales with a twist, modern people stuck in fantasyland, unlikely allies, divided loyalties, handsome stoic guards, and princesses who are overlooked because they don’t fit the mold.
The book starts with a chapter from Harper and ends with a chapter from Rhen and the rest of the book is dual POV from Grey and Lia Mara, eldest daughter of the queen of Syhl Shallow.
Grey is left reeling after his experience and unfortunate fact-finding mission with Lillith. He is doing what he thinks best to save Rhen and all of Emberfall. But as rumors circulate of a missing heir that would oust Rhen, hiding soon isn’t a possibility.
Lia Mara is the eldest daughter of the queen but she is no heir. Her compassion and caring nature is not seen as a strength and she has been passed over in favor of her younger sister. On a trip to Emberfall in hopes to sway Rhen into negotiations with the brutal kingdom Lia Mara starts to understand a greater truth. Can she convince key players to help find peace between their kingdoms?
A Heart so Fierce and Broken was not what I was expecting but in a good way. I need a challenge from time to time and I enjoyed this book.
It took me a bit to get into but that’s my own fault because I was languishing for more Harper and Rhen and more potential character growth from our beastly boy. I felt like the story took a while to get all the pieces together, but there is A LOT going on. We have to get formally unacquainted and/or unaligned entities not only in the same place but also on the same page. We have unlikely allies that I knew were going to be important… but how? All the while, I’m lamenting my lack of insight and inability to figure out where we will end up. Mainly, because our two leads were wrestling with their own choices and roles and expectations within the kingdom so there were so many possible paths for them. When we get about 50% of the way in all the loose character threads have now been woven together and I was good to go from that point on.
So, for me it was the not knowing or at least having so many possibilities that I couldn’t focus on the direction of the plot. But I really did enjoy having both Grey and Lia Mara support each other so they could find their individual strengths.
The problem now is we have a really big mess. Rhen is still a wreck and Grey and Lia Mara have a lot of hard decisions ahead of them. Harper, oh, I hope she can help these boys. I can’t wait to see what becomes of the kingdoms in A Vow So Bold and Deadly.
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